2007 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament


The 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament began on March 17, 2007 and concluded on April 3 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The Final Four consisted of Tennessee, LSU, Rutgers, and North Carolina, with Tennessee defeating Rutgers 59–46 for their seventh National Title. Tennessee's Candace Parker was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Notable events

The Dallas Regional largely followed the seeding, with the top two seeds meeting in the regional final, and the top seed, North Carolina, winning 84–72 to move on to the Final Four, the second consecutive trip to the Final Four for the Tarheels. In the Dayton Regional, seventh-seeded Mississippi upset second-seeded Maryland, and followed that with an upset of third-seeded Oklahoma, but in the regional final faced top-seeded Tennessee, who went on to beat Mississippi by 36 points, and move on to the Final Four.
In the Fresno Regional, the second-seeded Stanford Cardinal fell to Florida State, who then lost to third-seeded LSU. The wins by Florida State over ODU and Stanford were vacated by the NCAA. In the regional final, LSU easily beat Connecticut, 73–50. This is, as of 2018, the last Final Four to not feature Connecticut. In the Greensboro Regional, neither of the top two seeds made it to the regional final. The top seed, Duke, lost a one-point game to Rutgers, while the second seed, Vanderbilt, was ousted in the second round by Bowling Green. Third-seeded Rutgers beat the fourth seed, Arizona State, by 19 points in the regional final.
The semifinal game between Tennessee and North Carolina was expected to be a high-scoring game, but it turned out to be more disorder than scoring, In a game the New York Times would describe as an "artless grind", the Tarheels held a 48–36 lead with just over eight minutes to play. They would not score another basket. The Lady Vols, who ended up hitting only 27% of the field goal attempts, went on a 20–2 run, and ended up with the win, 56–50.
In the other semifinal, Rutgers faced LSU. Rutgers's appearance in a Final Four game seemed improbable earlier in the season, when the Scarlet Knights lost four of their first six games, and played so poorly that their coach C. Vivian Stringer revoked their access to their locker room. However, their play, particularly their defense, improved, and they were now a game away from a possible appearance in a national championship game, if they could defeat LSU, who had Sylvia Fowles as a dominant center. Fowles, who would go on to be the second overall WNBA draft pick the following year, had just completed a double-double against Connecticut, scoring 23 points, snaring 15 rebounds and blocking 6 shots. Rutgers held her to five points while missing eight of her ten field goal attempts. Rutgers pulled out to a 37–19 lead at halftime, and went on to win, holding LSU to 35 points, an NCAA record low in a Final Four game.
In the championship game, Tennessee was too much for Rutgers. The Lady Vols had an eleven-point lead at halftime, which Rutgers cut to seven, but that was as close as they would get. Candace Parker scored 17 points, but Pat Summitt noted the contribution of their 5-foot 2-inch point guard Shannon Bobbitt, who hit two key three-pointers en route to scoring 13 points of her own. Tennessee won 59–46, bringing the seventh national championship to the school, and increasing the win total of Summitt to 947, which is 33 more than Bob Knight, the most victorious coach on the men's side.

Subregionals

Once again, the system was the same as the Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, with the exception that only 64 teams go and there is no play-in game. Automatic bids are secured by 31 conference champions and 33 at-large bids.
The subregionals, which once again used the "pod system", keeping most teams at or close to the home cities, were held from March 17 to 20 at these locations:
The regionals were held from March 24 to 27 in the following regions. The regionals, as they were in the previous two tournaments, were named after the city they were played in.
The regional winners advanced to the Final Four, held on April 1 and 3, 2007 at Quicken Loans Arena, in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted by both Cleveland State University and the Mid-American Conference.

Tournament records

Sixty-four teams were selected to participate in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Thirty-one conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 2007 NCAA tournament.

Qualifying teams - at-large

Thirty-three additional teams were selected to complete the sixty-four invitations.

Tournament seeds

Bids by conference

Thirty-one conferences earned an automatic bid. In twenty-one cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Thirty-three additional at-large teams were selected from ten of the conferences.
BidsConferenceTeams
8Big EastRutgers, Connecticut, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, West Virginia
6Atlantic CoastNorth Carolina, Duke, Florida St., Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina St.
6Big 12Oklahoma, Baylor, Iowa St., Nebraska, Oklahoma St., Texas A&M
5SoutheasternVanderbilt, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee
4Pacific-10Stanford, Arizona St., California, Washington
3Atlantic 10Xavier, George Washington, Temple
3Big TenPurdue, Michigan St., Ohio St.
3ColonialOld Dominion, Delaware, James Madison
3Mountain WestNew Mexico, BYU, TCU
2Sun BeltMiddle Tenn., La.-Lafayette
1America EastUMBC
1Atlantic SunBelmont
1Big SkyIdaho St.
1Big SouthUNC Asheville
1Big WestUC Riverside
1Conference USAEast Carolina
1HorizonGreen Bay
1IvyHarvard
1Metro AtlanticMarist
1Mid-AmericanBowling Green
1Mid-ContinentOral Roberts
1Mid-EasternDelaware St.
1Missouri ValleyDrake
1NortheastRobert Morris
1Ohio ValleySoutheast Mo. St.
1PatriotHoly Cross
1SouthernChattanooga
1SouthlandTexas-Arlington
1SouthwesternPrairie View
1West CoastGonzaga
1Western AthleticBoise St.

Bids by state

The sixty-four teams came from thirty-one states, plus Washington, D.C. Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina had the most teams with five bids each. Nineteen states did not have any teams receiving bids.
BidsStateTeams
5North CarolinaEast Carolina, North Carolina, UNC Asheville, Duke, North Carolina St.
5TennesseeBelmont, Chattanooga, Middle Tenn., Vanderbilt, Tennessee
5TexasPrairie View, Texas-Arlington, Baylor, TCU, Texas A&M
3CaliforniaStanford, UC Riverside, California
3OhioBowling Green, Xavier, Ohio St.
3OklahomaOklahoma, Oral Roberts, Oklahoma St.
3PennsylvaniaRobert Morris, Pittsburgh, Temple
2DelawareDelaware St., Delaware
2FloridaSoutheast Mo. St., Florida St.
2GeorgiaGeorgia, Georgia Tech
2IdahoBoise St., Idaho St.
2IndianaPurdue, Notre Dame
2IowaDrake, Iowa St.
2LouisianaLa.-Lafayette, LSU
2MarylandUMBC, Maryland
2MassachusettsHarvard, Holy Cross
2VirginiaOld Dominion, James Madison
2WashingtonGonzaga, Washington
2WisconsinGreen Bay, Marquette
1ArizonaArizona St.
1ConnecticutConnecticut
1District of ColumbiaGeorge Washington
1IllinoisDePaul
1KentuckyLouisville
1MichiganMichigan St.
1MississippiOle Miss
1NebraskaNebraska
1New JerseyRutgers
1New MexicoNew Mexico
1New YorkMarist
1UtahBYU
1West VirginiaWest Virginia

Brackets

Data source

– Number of asterisks denotes number of overtimes.

Dallas Regional

Dayton Regional

Fresno Regional

Greensboro Regional

Final Four – [Quicken Loans Arena], [Cleveland], Ohio

Regional Initials: DAL-Dallas; DAY-Dayton; FRE-Fresno; GRE-Greensboro.

Television and radio

As it had every year since 2003, ESPN and ESPN2 televised all 63 games. The first two rounds were presented on a regional basis. In some cases, a complete game of interest to a particular region were shown. However, most of the telecasts were in a "whip-around" format, with the specific game being shown changed on occasion and the endings to all close games or potential major upsets included.
All games not shown on either ESPN or ESPN2 in a local market area were available to subscribers of ESPN Full Court, a pay-per-view package available on most major cable and satellite providers. Select games were also simulcast on ESPNU and ESPN360.
All games from the regional semifinals forward were televised nationally on either ESPN or ESPN2, in both standard-definition and high-definition formats. The Final Four was on ESPN. In addition, the championship game was presented in the ESPN Full Circle format.
ESPN had three announcers at each site: a play-by-play announcer, a color commentator, and a sideline reporter. Mike Patrick, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe and Mark Jones had those respective roles at the Final Four site in Cleveland. Patrick, Burke and Rowe also covered the Greensboro regional.
Burke, who had been a sideline reporter at previous Final Fours, replaced Ann Meyers, who had that role for the last ten years. Meyers is now the general manager of the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.
Other regional broadcast teams were:
Some of the other ESPN commentators during earlier rounds included Linda Cohn, Dave Revsine, Dave Barnett, Fran Fraschilla, and Van Chancellor.
Trey Wingo was the studio host, with analysts Kara Lawson and Stacey Dales.
Mowins and Debbie Antonelli called the Final Four action on Westwood One radio.

Comments

Conference# of BidsRecordWin %Round
of 32		Sweet
Sixteen		Elite
Eight		Final
Four		Championship
Game
Big East813–8.61972211
Atlantic Coast612–6.66764110
Big 1265–6.45541000
Southeastern516–4.80054321
Pacific-1044–4.50021100
Big Ten34–3.57121100
Atlantic 1033–3.50021000
Colonial30–3.00000000
Mountain West30–3.00000000
Sun Belt21–2.33310000
Metro Atlantic12–1.66711000
Mid-American12–1.66711000
Horizon11–1.50010000

Eighteen conferences went 0-1: America East, Atlantic Sun Conference, Big Sky Conference, Big South Conference, Big West Conference, Conference USA, Ivy League, Mid-Continent, MEAC, Missouri Valley Conference, Northeast Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Southern Conference, Southland, SWAC, West Coast Conference, and WAC

All-Tournament Team